addiction

Founding-era definition · Webster's 1828 American Dictionary

ADDIC'TION, noun 1. The act of devoting or giving up in practice; the state of being devoted. His addiction was to courses vain. 2. Among the Romans, a making over goods to another by sale or legal sentence; also an assignment of debtors in service in their creditors.
Source: Webster's 1828 American Dictionary ↗ · public-domain · returned verbatim, no AI

More founding-era words: liberty · virtue · republic · justice · providence · commerce · militia · arms · prudence · establishment · religion · usurpation · tyranny · citizen · unalienable · sovereign